


I'll stop wearing black when they make a darker color

by brandywine421



Category: Daredevil (TV), Iron Fist (TV)
Genre: Gen, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-24
Updated: 2019-01-24
Packaged: 2019-10-15 13:30:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17529632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brandywine421/pseuds/brandywine421
Summary: "I can't believe I'm saying this," Sergeant Mahoney said, turning his back on the bloodbath to face the head Priest. "But we have to rule it as a suicide."Father Wesley blinked at him, noting the blood dripping from the ceiling tiles from wide slash marks. "You reviewed the cameras?""Yes, Father. I'm not - this is a unique situation. The kind we'd usually be bringing to the priest to do his thing, but, this is hallowed ground," Mahoney sighed. "The coroner will wait a few days to make her report official, but - do you have someone to call for 'incidents' like this?"Wesley tried to focus on the cop. "Um.""Maybe check Father Lantom's contact list. We used to callhimwith cases like this," Mahoney admitted.He nodded with confidence he didn't feel. "Thank you, please let us know if anything new develops."He needed help. He hoped the Sisters would finally let him into the late Father's files now that this was happening.





	I'll stop wearing black when they make a darker color

**Author's Note:**

> Trying something new out. 
> 
> FYI - I don't know how Snapchat works but google says this could happen.

 

  
"No, you have to do it - you're the one that chose 'dare'," Sarati whispered, eyeing the scarf in the pile of offered bets. She knew that bitch wanted her scarf - she'd even paid for that one!

Hailey shrugged, playing with her ugly little doll before dropping it into the kitty. Nobody really wanted to win that. "We don't make the rules, but those are the rules."

Lola and Elissa glanced at each other before nodding. "You have to do it."

Traitors, all of them. Eden threw up her hands. "Fine, what was it you wanted me to do again?"

"Candyman - five times, no cheating because you're going to film it," Sarati grinned.

"Whoa, can't she do Bloody Mary instead? I hate bees," Elissa protested.

Hailey shoved her. "It's not real." She held out the little ugly figurine. "Here, she'll protect you."

Eden was trying to be nicer to the younger ones and managed not to go ' _ew ew ew'_ when she took the thing from the girl and climbed off the bed. "Don't touch my stuff, and it will be my stuff when I get back. Make sure everyone's on the Snapchat when I start filming."

"Already got the boys linked in, they're being gross about you going in the bathroom to do it, but that's where all the mirrors are," Sarati said, holding up her phone.

She glanced up and down - twice - to make sure none of the Sisters were doing an unscheduled walkthrough but one of the best parts about Saint Agnes was how close they stuck to their schedules. The coast was clear and she used the light of her phone as she slipped through the shadows to get to the bathroom, lit up brightly.

She couldn't make fun of anyone being scared of the dark; she'd had parents once and knew what it was like to not have anyone to check under the bed.

She checked her hair, freshly cut from a trip uptown to see her social worker, and hovered over the video button to document her total adherence to the rules. She put the ugly little figure on the shelf above the sink and the phone beside it so she was in frame.

There were a lot of mirrors in here.

She wasn't a coward. She should do Bloody Mary for spite.

When she met her eyes in the mirror, she couldn't say anything at all.

She wasn't even the first one to start screaming - or the last. She was the first to stop, she thought.

 

* * *

 

  
"I can't believe I'm saying this," Sergeant Mahoney said, turning his back on the bloodbath to face the head Priest. "But we have to rule it as a suicide."

Father Wesley blinked at him, noting the blood dripping from the ceiling tiles from wide slash marks. "You reviewed the cameras?"

"Yes, Father. I'm not - this is a unique situation. The kind we'd usually be bringing to the priest to do his thing, but, this is hallowed ground," Mahoney sighed. "The coroner will wait a few days to make her report official, but - do you have someone to call for 'incidents' like this?"

Wesley tried to focus on the cop. "Um."

"Maybe check Father Lantom's contact list. We used to call _him_ with cases like this," Mahoney admitted.

He nodded with confidence he didn't feel. "Thank you, please let us know if anything new develops."

He needed help. He hoped the Sisters would finally let him into the late Father's files now that this was happening.

 

* * *

 

"You should ask your 'friend'. Matthew," Sister Agatha said, her dentures sliding over the words.

"Why?" Maggie replied, wondering what she was implying.

Agatha waved her hand at the priest. "Paul would know why. Made us call in the head-shrinker once, but he never put anything in the records."

Father Wesley glanced at Maggie, almost apologetically but she held her tongue as he turned to the Elder sister. "I'm not sure I follow, Reverend Mother."

"There was a time he would talk to himself. Hear voices. Couldn't exactly know he was talking to ghosts since he's blind so we tried the psychologist. Figured he grew out of it since Father Lantom never brought it up again." She narrowed her sharp eyes on Maggie. "He never told you?"

"No. He didn't tell me any specifics," Maggie replied. All the photographs she'd seen of graduation and sparse birthdays had been addressed to Paul and never left his locked office drawer with the other 'we don't have favorites but here's a good one' over the years.

"And even if he doesn't still have the gift, he's got lots of weird friends. It'd be nice to keep it quiet. In the family," Agatha added with a wink.

"I don't like asking him for help, but he'd be insulted if I didn't since you name-dropped him," Sister Maggie said.

Father Wesley patted her shoulder. "Thank you. I'll take responsibility if he has a problem with it."

Agatha snorted wetly as she shuffled to her feet. "That boy would walk through fire if you asked him to."

"We can pray about it later," Wesley said before she could correct the old bat.

He was right. They had to deal with the ghost first.

 

* * *

 

"Nelson, Page and Murdock, how may I direct your call?" Karen answered cheerily when the fancy new phone lit up with their first call in the new office.

They'd earned this office without breaking any laws or taking any cases that made them nauseous and it was so much nicer than the back of a butcher shop. Plus, she needed to be far away from all those delicious sandwiches - she'd put on ten pounds in the first month.

" _Karen_?"

She shook off her thoughts and looked at the caller ID. "Oh, Sister Maggie. How are you?"

" _Fine. Is Matthew in today? I was hoping to speak with him but he isn't answering his phone. Or his other phone._ "

Karen winced and opened her drawer to reveal both phones, lit up with missed calls. "We just finished a big case and I took his phones so he would focus. I forgot to give them back. Let me get him for you." She looked up and saw Matt standing by her desk with his arms crossed. She handed him the phones and the handset for the land line. "Sorry."

"Hello? Oh. No, my day's clear - it's no problem," Matt said and Karen didn't correct him, but she did pull up his schedule on their new office desktop. "Is there anything else I should know?" He frowned sharply and Karen's curiosity alarm went off. "I'll see you in an hour."

"What's going on?" she asked when he dropped the phone back onto the headset.

"I don't know yet. She says it's not related to my 'thing' but I'm not so sure. What's my schedule look like?"

"Nothing you can't miss. I'll tell Foggy - "

Foggy popped his head out of his office. "Tell me what?"

"I need the afternoon. Sister Maggie needs a favor," Matt said.

Foggy made shooing gestures. "Go, but call me when you know if it's going to interfere with anything tomorrow."

"Call me, too - and if you need any help," Karen added.

Matt paused but finally nodded. "Sure. But she mentioned something about haunting - "

"Nope, not doing ghosts," Karen held up both hands. "I take it back."

"Wow. Is that something you do?" Foggy asked.

Matt snorted. "Not exactly, but how many times has she called me directly? It won't hurt anything to look around."

"Definitely call me later, we'll conference in Karen so we can laugh in solidarity," Foggy called after him.

 

* * *

 

"Thank you for coming at such short notice," Maggie said when Matthew silently joined her in the chapel. He must be worried if he wasn't tapping and was careful enough to be quiet.

"I'm sorry about Eden," he said.

She nodded. She couldn't think about Eden when there were so many others in danger. "It wasn't a suicide."

"Explain," he stated, his voice dropping a notch into Daredevil range.

"She was alone in the bathroom, but she was 'live-chatting' with some of the other children. Do you know what that means?"

He tilted his head. "Video?"

"Enough to know something was in there with her. But she was alone," Maggie replied. She took a breath. "Sister Agatha said you might be able to help."

Matthew frowned. "I don't know how to respond to that. The Reverend Mother has never had much to say to me."

She smiled despite herself. "You're still terrified of her, she thinks its cute."

"How can I help?" he asked. "Video's not going to help me much - "

"Ghosts. She thinks you can talk to ghosts," Maggie stated, watching him.

He rocked back on his heels, thoughtful. "Huh."

She waited.

"She's a nosy old bat, I want it on record that I'm not confirming anything and my therapist and Foggy will *never* hear about what happens today. But we can give it a go," he said finally.

Wait. What?

 

* * *

 

Matt sat down in the courtyard and gestured for Sister Maggie and the Father to take seats. "Father Lantom was the only person I ever told and he never saw them, so I can't promise you this will change anything. But it's worth a shot."

The light started to fade at sunset and Sister Maggie, still chilled from the shock of earlier, suddenly got even colder despite the summer humidity.

Father Wesley opened his mouth to say something but Matthew started humming under his breath and clicking the beads of his rosary in steady tempo.

She squeezed the Father's knee when the breeze ruffled Matthew's hair and he shifted on the bench without losing track of his rhythm. He paused, tilting his head as he listened to something. "Do you want to borrow mine? I won't tell," he whispered, holding out his rosary.

For a moment, the beads and tiny cross hovered in midair but finally a young girl in a faded dress appeared, clutching the rosary in tiny hands. It wasn't just the dress that was faded, the child's hair and skin was translucent and shimmered in the stray spots of sunlight.

The child looked at Sister Maggie with curious, wide eyes without color. She held her breath. The ghost smiled, gap-toothed and young before trotting over to a cluster of more lost children, barely there in the dusky grass.

"Shh," Matt warned when Father Wesley inhaled sharply. He must not have seen the child before she joined her friends.

She never thought the church would hold such ghosts - didn't the dead earn peace? Not even the children were allowed rest in this holy place?

The girl held up the rosary, the image flickering and a tall nun appeared, taking the beads with a sharp frown. Sister Maggie knew that frown - the woman loomed in a large portrait in the nunnery as the first Reverend Mother of the church. She slowly approached and Sister Maggie realized what her charges felt like when she caught them doing something wrong.

"Do you have a moment, Sister, to pray with a poor blind orphan?" Matthew asked with a sideways smirk that surely earned him a ruler to the knuckles in his worst days.

The Reverend Mother huffed, a rough sound. "You are no orphan now, yet you still spin tricks like a street urchin, no manners." But she sat down and turned sharp, black eyes on Sister Maggie and Father Wesley as she dropped the rosary back into his palm.

Maggie found her voice and lowered her eyes. "Reverend Mother, forgive our intrusion."

"It's not an evil spirit," the ghost stated, prim, glaring at Matthew. He started counting the beads again, clicking them together like a petulant teenager trying to get kicked out of the chapel. She returned her attention to Sister Maggie. "The children have brought something from the other side. Not an evil spirit. Worse. And it's hungry." She crossed herself.

"How can we make it go away?" Father Wesley asked, finally finding his voice.

She regarded him down her nose. "He's an eager one, isn't he?"

"We all have to start somewhere," Matthew replied. "He's too kind, always falls for my bullshit."

Sister Maggie opened her mouth to scold him but the ghost chuckled, a fond sound. "He'll learn," the Reverend Mother said as she turned back to them. "You have to kill it."

"Oh." Father Wesley crossed his hands in his lap.

"Is that a possibility?" Matthew asked, clicking the beads.

"It's the only possibility. Kill it before it kills more of you," she said, standing up. She paused and looked at Matthew again. "Didn't think you'd make it this long."

"Me either," Matthew grinned when the ghost patted his head and faded into the night.

 

* * *

 

"I got this weird call from Jessica asking if I knew anything about ghosts?"

Matt sighed. "It's more complicated than that, but yeah. I wanted to pick Danny's brain but you're probably a better bet."

Colleen laughed. "Noted, I'm second best but still okay. I know a _little_ , but the ghosts I've encountered weren't malevolent, those are usually something else."

"We are way into the 'something else' part of the equation. Any ideas on how I can take out an alleged demon possibly conjured from hell?"

"Seriously? What am I talking about, you're always serious. Let me pull some stuff together. Anybody hurt?"

"Slaughtered a kid last night."

"Oh my God," she whispered. "Where?"

"My church, well, the orphanage. Sister Maggie called me, I told her I'd try to help."

"Of course, absolutely."

"Jess is afraid of ghosts and yes, you can quote me on that, but I'd love some help."

"Send me the address, I'll pack a bag."

"Thanks, Colleen."

"Don't thank me yet, I'm going to kick your ass if you get me cursed."

"As is your right."

 

* * *

 

  
She didn't know Matt as well as Danny claimed to, but she liked to think they were friends. _(She had a feeling there was only_ one _person that actually knew Matt well.)_ She couldn't deny a little shiver of excitement at being tagged in to help him on a 'case'. Matt had never asked Danny for help and if she didn't die tonight, she was going to taunt the fuck out of him for it when he called next week.

She considered taking her katana off her back before going inside the church but it wouldn't fit in her bag and she definitely wasn't leaving it behind. Matt appeared at the top of the stairs and she shook off her doubts and joined him.

"How are you?" Matt asked, giving her a warm hug that she didn't expect.

"Wow, a hug?" she laughed, and he smiled at her. Wow, she forgot how attractive he was when he wasn't hiding his face under a cowl.

He shrugged. "I don't know if we've ever 'hung out' in real life before, but I figure we're good enough friends for a bro-hug."

"Nice," she agreed. "Fill me in."

He swung his cane as he led her into the deserted sanctuary, the coroner's van was still parked out back so it made sense for the place to be empty.

But when they made it into the attached building, she saw that it was far from empty - it was full of women and children. She couldn't think of a worse place for a demon.

Matt paused finally in the intersection of several hallways and lowered his voice. "One of the girls passed away last night, violently. The cops are ruling it as self-inflicted but - " he hesitated.

"You don't think it was a suicide?" Colleen asked quietly.

Matt shook his head, solemn. "They have those about once a year, but from what I overheard, this was..messy. They have cameras in the hallway and she was alone in the bathroom, but - they're going to file it as a suicide but there's no way. They're still cleaning up."

She looked past him down the hallway where the Sisters were shuffling in and out of the bathroom with bloody towels and mops. "How are the kids doing?"

"Terrified, confused. She was one of the older kids and everyone knew her so it's hard to smooth over," Matt replied, sliding his hand around her elbow. "Sister Maggie's waiting for us."

She spotted a couple of children peeking from a door and slowed her steps. "Maybe we take the long way." The two kids, maybe 10 years old, tops, motioned at her.

"Sure," Matt said, letting her guide him toward the beckoning kids without question.

The boy had dark skin and enthusiastic curls and the girl matched his coloring and facial features enough for her to mark them as siblings before he spoke. "Mr. Murdock? Can, um, we talk to you?"

Matt tilted his head and turned. "Is that Horace? Sure, buddy," he said, holding out his closed fist. The boy smiled and bumped knuckles. "This is my friend, Colleen."

"Are you going to kill it with your sword?" the girl blurted out, looking up at her with wide brown eyes.

Oh. What was she supposed to say to that?

"Hi, Hailey," Matt said, patting the girl on the head. "What do you two know about what's happening?"

Horace shivered suddenly and his sister grabbed his hand. "It's our fault."

"Those are big words, as your attorney, I'd advise you not to say that out loud," Matt said, following them into a large room with more children, albeit older than the siblings. "Hey, guys."

"She brought a sword, that's better than your idea," Horace snapped at one of the others.

"Hey," Matt said sharply and the children settled. "Tell me what's happening."

A thin girl leaned forward. "Some of us went to that Ren faire out in Brooklyn last week, got some stuff."

"Some stuff we paid for, some we didn't," another kid said.

"And ever since, weird shit - stuff's - been happening. And Eden - " the first girl broke off.

Hailey looked up at Colleen. "Eden's our friend who died."

"Do you think something you took was cursed?" Matt asked and Colleen watched a few of the kids visibly relax.

" _Told you he'd believe us,_ " someone whispered.

"We got most of it together, like, we ate all the food and traded the cigarettes," Horace announced, dragging a cardboard box from under a bed and bringing it over to them.

"Please, no felonies until you're old enough to pay for my services, guys," Matt sighed, taking the box.

Colleen's sword buzzed against her back. "I think it's in there."

"What should we do?" someone asked.

Matt hummed. "We'll get back to you on that. For now, I hope you'll behave for the Sisters so I won't get in trouble again for corrupting our youth."

Sister Maggie cleared her throat from the hallway.

"You always get me in trouble," Matt pouted, a giggle rippling through the room.

Colleen greeted her with a wink. "I'm not with him."

 

* * *

 

**Author's Note:**

> Title from 'Fall Out Boy'. Most of the children are named after the models on 'Deal or No Deal'.


End file.
